or to the court. They sit there, I say, to interpret the law and to decide upon the doubtful points which frequently arise from incidental questions. For not in its reckonings, but in its manifold judgments, does the superior science of the exchequer consist. For it is easy when the sum required has been put down, and the sums which have been handed in are placed under it for comparison, to tell by subtraction if the demands have been satisfied or if anything remains. But when one begins to make a many-sided investigation of those things which come into the fisc in varying ways, and are required under different conditions, and are not collected by the sheriffs in the same way,—to be able to tell if the latter have acted otherwise than they should, is in many ways a grave task. Therefore the greater science of the exchequer is said to consist in these matters. But the judgments on doubtful or doubted points which frequently come up can not be comprehended under one form of treatment; for all kinds of doubts have not yet come to light. Certain, however, of the matters which we know to have been brought up and settled, we shall note below in their proper place.
V. What is the office of the President, and of all those who sit there officially; and what the arrangement of the seats.
D. What is the office of this so important a member?
M. Nothing can be more truly said of him than that he looks after all things in the lower and upper exchequer, and all the lower offices are arranged according to his will; in such wise, however, that they duly turn out to the advantage of the lord king. In this, moreover, among other things, his exalted character is seen,—that he, under his own witness, can" cause a writ of the lord king to be made out so that any sum may be delivered from the treasury, or that there may be computed to any one, whatever he knows ought, by command of the king, to be computed to him. Or, if he prefer, he can make his own writ, witnessed to by others, concerning these matters.
D. Great is this man to whose fidelity the care of the whole kingdom, nay, the very heart of the king is entrusted.
